To continuously cast molten metal, it is cast or fed as by continuously teeming from a ladle or tundish, into the open top of a continuous casting mold having an open bottom.
The mold is cooled and the downwardly traveling molten metal solidifies first at its surface in the mold to form a solid skin so as to produce a cast strand continuously traveling from the bottom of the mold with the skin containing remaining unsolidified molten metal. The strand ultimately solidifies throughout at a distance from the mold's bottom. It is desirable to stir the molten metal in this mold as well as in the strand's skin so that the solidification of the molten metal proceeds uniformly.
For stirring after the strand has left the mold, multiphase electromagnetic stirrers positioned beside the traveling strand can be used satisfactorily, but for stirring of the molten metal in the mold an electromagnetic stirrer must project its field through the mold and the mold must be made of non-magnetic material, and this introduces complications.
The object of the present invention is to stir the molten metal inside of the continuous casting mold during the formation of the solidified skin in the mold, in a relatively simple but effective manner.